Hardcore cricket fans, to this day, remember the magical delivery bowled by Shane Warne to English opener Andrew Strauss in 2005. The delivery spun sharply from Strauss’ offside to shatter his leg stump, making it one of the most iconic moments in Test cricket of that year.
Pakistan’s leg-break spinner Ghulam Fatima, a few days ago, managed to recreate the delivery when she bowled out a batter during a domestic cricket match.
The left-handed batter named Fareeha advanced down the pitch in an attempt to hit Fatima’s spinning delivery out of the park when the sharply-spun ball got the better of her.
Ghulam Fatima (born 5 October 1995) is a Pakistani cricketer. She made her Women’s One Day International cricket (WODI) debut against South Africa in the 2017 Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier on 7 February 2017. She made her Women’s Twenty20 International cricket (WT20I) debut for Pakistan Women against Sri Lanka Women on 28 March 2018.
In similar fashion to what happened to Strauss, Fareeha could only watch as the ball spun sharply to shatter her leg stump.
The ball had pitched on the off-side.
Fatima took to Twitter to share the moment, and her bowling figures from the match as well.
Cricket expert Osman Samiuddin was all praise for the bowler.
Twitter account @Elephantaro was taken aback at the sharp turn the ball took after skidding off the track.
A lot of people started tagging former Aussie bowling great Shane Warne.
Ghulam Fatima has played only three Women’s ODI matches for Pakistan. She has taken six wickets so far, with best bowling figures of 3/28.
Pakistan cricketer Ghulam Fatima bowls some pretty beautiful leg-breaks and despite not re-entering the national side since her debut in 2017, she continues to deliver some exciting moments on the field. In a domestic game recently in Pakistan, she delivered a leg-break right from the top draw, leaving Fareeha Mehmood absolutely clueless. Some people on social media are drawing parallels to Shane Warne‘s delivery to Andrew Strauss.
In the Pakistan Women’s One Day Cup game, Fatima pitched it way outside off stump to the left-handed Fareeha Mehmood and the Pakistan cricketer walked down the ground to heave it over the top. The ball looped in slow and nice, before taking a sharp twirl into the left-hander and hitting the stumps. She managed to hit middle-and-leg having pitched close to the wide line on the offside, reminding people of the stuff Shane Warne would do from time to time.
The Pakistan cricketer posted the video on her Twitter handle yesterday and the video has already garnered over 40,000 views. A lot of people in the comments tagged the great Australian leggie, trying to get his opinion on the amazing turn the Pakistan cricketer generated.
The Pakistan cricketer joins “Ball of the century” race
Ghulam Fatima’s outrageous leg break seems to have added her to the nominees’ list for the “Ball of the century”, which includes the man who, by public opinion, holds the trophy for the previous century for his delivery to Mike Gatting. Shane Warne’s mindboggling delivery to Andrew Strauss back in the day is definitely up there in contention. In the 2005 Ashes, Warne pitched the ball around the wideline mark and with Strauss attempting to pad it away, he shockingly saw it turn in front of him and hit the stumps.
Ravichandran Ashwin’s immaculate artistry against Hashim Amla in the 2014 World T20 earns him a shoutout in this race. Some notable ones are Ryan Harris’s inexplicable delivery to Alastair Cook in 2013, Mohammed Asif’s perfect in-swinging delivery to VVS Laxman in 2006, Jasprit Bumrah‘s slower ones against Shaun Marsh in 2018 and Ollie Robinson in 2021 among a plethora of others.
